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Article published In:
Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 3:1 (2020) ► pp.51–75

“Article 1103: oh pff… yes—then concerns… the… um… unilateral contract…”

What do hesitation and repair markers tell us about text reception patterns of translators and lawyers?

ORCID logo | University of Geneva

Hesitation and lexical repair markers are part of almost every audibly pronounced sentence. Empirical linguistics generally bases its examinations on spontaneous speech production. This paper uses the discourse analytical approach of empirical linguistics to analyse think-aloud protocols produced by translators and lawyers in a mixed methods study combining thinking aloud and eyetracking. Two expert groups—lawyers and translators, comprising both professionals and students—read complex legal texts in French and summarised them in German, their mother tongue. A mainly qualitative analysis evaluates and categorises the occurrences and functions of various German hesitation and discourse markers. This not only provides information about the use of fillers and repair actions during speech but also insights into reception processes and perceptions of text difficulty. A quantitative analysis of pause fillers suggests that the reception processes of lawyers and translators differ.

Keywords: hesitation phenomena, pause fillers, text comprehension, legal translation, legal text, cognitive translation studies, translation process research
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Hesitation phenomena in spoken German
  • 3.Methodology and data
    • 3.1Informants, experimental design and material
    • 3.2Coding and analysis of think-aloud protocols
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Qualitative analysis of discourse and hesitations markers
      • 4.1.1Discourse markers genau, okay and ja
      • 4.1.2Emotionally marked discourse markers ah and ach
      • 4.1.3Repair marker nein/nee
      • 4.1.4Discourse marker also with two discursive functions
      • 4.1.5The hesitation marker äh/ähm and repetitions
    • 4.2Quantification of coded discourse markers
      • 4.2.1Number of fillers and repetitions per 100 words
      • 4.2.2Comparison between fillers and repair markers per 100 words
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00034.gri
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